These white boxes are part of a mobile device monitoring system along the Kalamazoo Mall. The technology, from the Kalamazoo/Detroit-based WAYN WiFi company, tracks devices as they search for a Wi-Fi connection.Chuck Miller | Kalamazoo Gazette

The 20 Wi-Fi access points were installed in the fall and paid for by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and the Event Company to monitor traffic during events such as Art Hops.

As personal devices such as smartphones and tablets look for Wi-Fi connections, they are detected by the access points and create a map of the devices’ human users traffic patterns. The devices can gather data on specific time frames on specific dates and how long a device dwells in one spot.

Here is a sampling of comments on the story:

itsajoke: “They can double talk this or play it down all the want to but the bottom line is they are keeping a "eye' on you. This is the beginning of a process that once implemented will be tweaked and improved on over time as the technology evolves and they will have even greater access intruding into your private life and whereabouts. … All these years, stores have been making it on their own without big brother playing 007. The collection of this info won't change a thing about the stores and how they conduct their business. ... If they want to succeed they will do it by having products the people want, not by how many footsteps are walking around in Bronson Park.”

chungasrevenge: “What's a little benign spying amongst friends?”

decaturmethodz: “They need to spend money on a device that that monitors foot traffic downtown? Sounds like they need that money to have their heads examined. All they have to do is look out their window and see there isn't a whole lot of foot traffic down there most of the time. Interesting, way before the days of all this technology the downtown used to be packed. And had anyone been interested in the foot traffic back then it would have been the merchants, not the an arts council. Heck, they wouldn't have known what an arts council was then, let alone have one so involved in the life of downtown. How downtown has changed!”

Just Another Viewer: “Did the … Arts Council even consider the privacy of others? What if I as a citizen or guest in the area don't wish to be tracked. my information identified or not? Why should I have to switch MY device off to avoid it? Were we warned? Did they tell us we were being tracked? Sounds like grounds for a court case to me.

Checkspell: “I hope nobody walks down the mall with a hammer and smashes all the boxes now that people know what the devices are, that would be tragic. The technology is very invasive. If Beth or anyone else that taps into the system sees person X walking down the mall from her office window in the Arts Council or a car or restaurant or the police station they can then identify the red dot on their computer screen as person X and know every single detail about what person X did while on the mall or however far out McCann and others wants to take it. A stalker's fantasy and another apparatus of a police state.”

Givemeyourhungry: “Fact is, the technology is developing faster than the laws we need to protect ourselves from it. If our Legislative Branch would get up off their collective derriers and develop laws requiring encryption of data, such as those collected by the NSA, and laws requiring a court order before those data could be de-encrypted, it might help. How about laws developed by municipalities such as the city of Kalamazoo regarding technology such as this?”

ItsInKalamazoo: “This is happening EVERYWHERE. …This technology doesn't capture your IP address, phone number, name or first-born child. You are an unidentified dot that simply shows how many people participate in a community event. It never ceases to amaze me how much the readers of MLive are terrified of advancement. But I'll tell you this, from someone who works with this technology - if you refuse to go to downtown Kalamazoo because of this, guess what? In two years, you won't even leave your house. Because this technology is akin to advancements in cellular technology 25 years ago, and it's going to be everywhere.”